Conquering Her Fear
by HermioneMalfoy79
Summary: Hermione attempts to conquer her fear and impress her boyfriend at the same time. It doesn't quite work out the way she would have liked. Luckily, she can depend on Draco. Fluffy one shot.


**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter, names, and places are copyright JK Rowling. No profit is being made from this fanfiction.

**Pairing:** Draco/Hermione

**Summary: **Hermione attempts to conquer her fear and impress her boyfriend at the same time. It doesn't quite work out the way she would have liked. Luckily, she can depend on Draco.

**Setting: **Hogwarts "eighth" year

**x-x-x-x-x**

**Conquering Her Fear**

Hermione Granger was a young woman who didn't fear much. Now she was regretting her attempts to get over one phobia she'd always had deep down inside. She cursed her rotten luck as she clutched on tightly to the post. Flying was never really her thing, only having done it a handful of times in her life. The first time was on a Hippogriff with Harry, then on a Threstral, once with Ron while being chased by Death Eaters and once again with Ron, along with an unconscious Goyle, as they flew for their lives out of the Room of Requirement. With that little bit of experience with being up high she really thought she could finally do it on her own.

She whimpered and clutched to the goal post, unfortunately it just _had_ to be the highest goal post at fifty feet in the air. Just ten minutes ago she had come out the Quidditch Pitch and set her fears aside to fly. It had been easy at first until she didn't know how to guide the broom away from the post and ended up crashing into it, snapping the school's broom in half as it fell to the ground, far below, also dropping her wand with it. Tears sprang from her eyes as she clutched them shut. No one was around this time of night so they would hear her cries for help. She would be stuck here until whoever came to practice the next day. Banging her forehead lightly on the post out of frustration, she wished she hadn't done this.

Her spirits brightened a little when she noticed a glow from the corner of her eye and she sighed with relief when the otter playfully glided around her. She had summoned her Patronus in case she needed to call for help and she thanked herself for her thinking ahead. Now who could she call?

Neville or Luna wouldn't be any help. She wasn't close enough friends with Dean or Seamus to ask either of them for help without feeling awkward. She definitely wasn't going to ask Ginny because it'd get back to Harry and Ron and they would only worry and reprimand her for motives behind it. That only left one person and, although her pride really didn't want him knowing what she had done, she felt she could trust him enough to help her out with this situation.

Since returning to Hogwarts after the war, many of the Slytherins who had been children of Death Eaters had been paired up with various students from other houses of their year as sort of a guide and a way to encourage and support inter-house unity. At first Hermione hadn't been pleased that she had been paired with Draco Malfoy of all people, but she soon understood Headmistress McGonagall's idea of pairing the two of them together.

It had been very difficult the first couple of weeks until she started to understand Draco better and learned to deal with him. Once she understood his reasons and motives during the war, and understood a little more about how he had been raised, they had talked about it. Talking about it was exactly what he had needed and that had lead to her forgiving him and they called a truce. They'd work together to get along that year to make things easier for themselves and along the way, they had learned that they had had a lot more in common than they had always thought. Hermione soon found herself really liking this new Draco Malfoy who was finding his redemption and changing his views on the wizarding world. She had started to feel she had more of a connection with him than she had with her current boyfriend, Ron, at the time.

When her crush on Draco started to get in the way and gave her conflicting feelings for Ron, she had planned to break up with him over the Christmas holidays. Much to her relief, the break up had been mutual because it seemed that Ron was starting to like Lavender Brown again who had started to work near him. Hermione was just glad to know that Ron was happy and she would have a chance figure out her unrequited feelings for Draco.

However, her feelings weren't so unrequited. Hermione had been convinced that Draco too saw the connection between them and using her Gryffindor courage, she had sent him a Valentine to meet her by the Black Lake where she had confessed her feelings towards him. Draco had been surprised at first, but then he had kissed her. A few days later he had asked her to be his girlfriend. Their relationship had been most shocking, but soon enough it had died down a bit now that the end of the year was fast approaching and more important things, such as exams, were coming up.

It was just after the Easter holidays in which she had observed her friends enjoying flying together at the Burrow. Harry and Ginny each flew side by side on their own brooms while Ron had held Lavender on the broom they were sharing. Throughout the year, Hermione had made some observations about the couples of Hogwarts. It seemed to be a very popular thing for couples to ride on broomsticks together or attend the Quidditch matches together as a date. Hermione had unknowingly rejected Draco when he had asked her to go flying with him and continuously made up excuses not to go with him.

She wanted to make it up to him by getting over her fear, without him knowing she even had a fear, so that she could enjoy it with him.

"How g-good that w-worked out for m-me," she whispered fearfully to herself, shaking with fear as she glanced down again. She knew he was going to find out now anyway. She looked towards her otter and took a deep breath. "F-Find Draco M-Malfoy for me and give him t-this message: D-Draco, come to the Quidditch pitch...a-alone and bring your N-N-Nimbus, please..."she hoped her voice didn't sound too shaky as her otter playfully glided away. She tightened her hold onto the Quidditch post as more tears flowed down her cold cheeks. She was frightened and only hoped that he would hurry.

**x-x-x-x-x**

Draco was sitting on a sofa in Slytherin common room studying potions that evening. His original intention was to study with his girlfriend but she had told him she had other business she had to do instead. He hated being alone in the library so decided to take his studying to the dungeons. The Slytherin common room was mostly quiet, except for the odd giggle-like shriek that came from Pansy Parkinson when Theodore Nott said something that was apparently funny.

Glancing around, he saw the last of the younger students heading off to bed. It was just some of students above fifth year left. He narrowed his eyes at Astoria Greengrass who was attempting to slide closer to him on the sofa. She had been annoying him all year and she had only become more unbearable after he had started to openly date Hermione. Couldn't the girl get a clue? He was silently thankful when her older sister, Daphne, gave her a look and she quickly slid away to the other end of the sofa, leaving him glare at Blaise Zabini who chuckled lowly from the chair beside them.

Draco looked up when he heard Pansy shriek and was surprised to see Hermione's patronus quickly glide towards him. He knew it was hers because she had shown it to him countless times earlier that year when she had agreed to teach him how to do it. It was until she had confessed her feelings for him on Valentine's day when he was finally able to conjure one, which had turned out to a patronus that matched her own; showing just how deep his feelings were for her.

Alerted, he sat up straight when it stopped in front of him and delivered the message: _"D-Draco, come to the Quidditch pitch...a-alone and bring your N-N-Nimbus, please..."_

He instantly become worried when he heard how shaky her voice sounded. Closing his potions book, he got up and headed to his dorm to grab his Nimbus. On the way out of the Slytherin common room, he stopped when he heard a sneering laugh.

"Awww is Malfoy going to go check on his little Mudblood girlfriend?" Nott's voice rang out. "She sounded quite spooked!"

Draco's glare stopped some of the surrounding giggles and chuckles. "Shut up, Nott. I warned you before not to call her _that_," he spat.

Nott only smirked at him as Pansy cuddled up to him and gave him a sneer herself. "Why don't we go see for ourselves?" she suggested.

"That's sounds like a fantastic idea, Pansy!" Theo agreed, getting up.

Draco blocked their way. "Don't even _think_ about following me," he warned. Hermione had obviously asked that he came alone for a reason.

"Are you really going to try and stop us?" Theo challenged.

"Stop, Nott," Blaise warned. "You and your _girlfriend_ have been causing nothing but trouble this year and I'm getting sick of it," he nodded to Draco. "Go ahead, mate, I'll make sure no one follows."

Draco nodded in thanks before quickly leaving the dungeons. He had ducked out of the way when he saw the head girl and head boy making their rounds that evening, but luckily, he hadn't run into Filch or any professors on the way out. He was too focused on how scared Hermione had sounded and it worried him.

Finally he made it out to the Quidditch pitch. If it hadn't been for the full moon, he wouldn't have been able to see much. "Hermione?" he called out.

It was silent for a moment until he heard her shaky voice. "I-I'm...up h-here," she called.

He glanced up and frowned when he saw her clinging onto the highest Quidditch goalpost. Quickly getting on his broom, he flew up to her.

"How in Merlin's name did you get up here?" he questioned and came up beside her. In the moonlight, he could see her tears and how much she was shaking. "Did someone do this to you?" he growled as he flew in closer to her.

She shook her head slightly. "N-No," she whimpered. "I-I'll explain l-later."

Draco nodded at this and reached out for her. "All right, lets get you down from here."

Hermione only clutched to the post tighter, squeezing her eyes shut. "Draco, I-I can't m-m-move!"

"It's okay," he whispered. "I'm not going to let you fall. Just relax," he placed a hand on her back and she only shook more. "Shhh...it's okay."

"D-Draco," she whimpered.

"It's okay," he reassured her again, maneuverings the broom just under the post. "Come here; I promise that you won't fall. I won't let you."

"I-I'm s-s-scared!" she cried.

"Not every day do you hear a Gryffindor saying that," he teased.

"This is h-hardly the t-time to m-make a joke, D-Draco!" she cried. "I'm r-really am scared!"

"I know you are, love," he kissed her hair. "I'm right here and I won't let anything happen, I promise. Just relax and release your grip, I've got you."

"D-Drac-Draco..." she cried when he slid an arm around her.

"Shhh...come on, now, I've got you, love," he pulled her up and onto his broom, facing him, her legs on either side of his thighs and he pulled her close. "Put your arms around me."

She clutched him tightly, digging her trembling fingers into his cloak. He could feel her cold tears against his skin as she buried her face into his neck. He held her with one arm and leaned forward slightly to guide the broom towards the ground. When he feet touched, he dropped the broom and lowered them gently until she was sitting in his lap and wrapping his cloak around her and held her close.

He patiently comforted her while she cried the last of her tears and regained herself, running his fingers soothingly through her thick curls.

"Are you all right now?" he asked.

She nodded against him. "I think so. I'm still a little shook up..."

"I know," he kissed hair. "Want to tell me how you ended up on that goal post?"

"Promise you won't laugh?" she asked seriously.

He pulled her away enough to look at her face, but she avoided his gaze. He knew it would go against her pride if she confessed. "I promise."

"I...oh, this is embarrassing!" she grumbled.

"You can tell me anything, just as I can tell _you_ anything," he said to her.

"I know," she nodded against him. "I just...I..."

"You have a fear of flying don't you?"

"Well...it's more of a fear of heights, I suppose," she said. "I've always had it since I was a child."

"Is that why you never want to go flying when I ask?"

"You could say that..."

"That doesn't explain why you ended up up there though."

"I just ...I wanted to...I wanted to impress you," she said. "It's pathetic, I know."

"It's not pathetic," he reassured her. "But why would you want to impress me like that?"

"It's just...I see to many girls flying with their boyfriends," she explained. "I wanted to do it too, like you offered many times, but I didn't want you to know that I was scared."

"But you've been on a broom before," he said, remembering the incident in the Room of Requirement.

"It's not the same...I wasn't the one flying the broom and...it was a life or death situation!"

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Draco nodded. "But why didn't you talk to me about it? And don't be me that _Gryffindors aren't afraid of anything_ bullshit," he smirked.

She rested her head on his shoulder. "I don't know; I just thought it was a fear I should conquer myself."

"And that didn't quite work out for you," he pointed out lamely and glanced around. He gasped when he noticed the broken broom beside them. "You didn't get hurt did you?"

"No, I was able to grab onto the post just as the broom snapped in half and pulled myself up," she glanced up and realizing just how high up she had been, she started to shiver against him.

Draco held her close and soothed her again. "Don't worry about it. You're safe now."

"I was just so scared up there...it was just so high...thank you for coming for me..."

"Of course," he reassured her again. "I would never let anything happen to you, Hermione," he tilted her lips towards his and kissed her softly. _"Ever."_

"I know I can trust you," she smiled and yawned, now realizing just how much that had tuckered her out.

He pulled her up with him before he picked up her wand and handed it to her and picking up his Nimbus. He wrapped part of his cloak around her and pulled her close to his side. "I'll walk you back to Gryffindor tower. But just know one thing."

"Mmm...what is that?"

"I want you to get a good night's sleep because tomorrow you're going to conquer your fear."

"What?" she gasped. "There is no way I'm ever getting on a broom by myself again!"

"Who said anything about getting on by yourself?" he grinned. "You'll definitely be flying with me until you're comfortable enough to do it yourself."

"I will never be comfort-"

"Don't say that. Once you realize how fun it is, I'll never get you away from a broom," he laughed.

"No-"

"Don't _worry. _I'm not going to make you fly by yourself tomorrow, or next week, or next month. You'll tell me on your own terms when you feel ready. In the mean time, you'll fly with me and we'll conquer your fear one step at a time, okay?"

Hermione thought about this. "Okay," she agreed as they entered the castle and allowed him to guide her towards the Gryffindor tower. Already she felt better.

**x-x-x-x-x**

**The next day**

Draco and Hermione wandered out on to the pitch early that Saturday morning. The sky was overcast and it was a bit chilly, but they were in luck that there were no students around. The only one who might see them would be Hagrid if he was making his rounds.

"I didn't realize it was just _that_ high up," Hermione shivered when she tilted her head up at the highest goal post.

She cast a warming charm on them both before tucking her wand into her pocket while Draco got onto his Nimbus. She glanced at it warily.

"You're not chickening out on me are you?" he smirked.

She glared at him. "No. I'm just not sure how to we're going to do this."

"You're going to get on in front of me," he said and patted the seat.

"Is that safer?"

"Well, I can hold onto you myself," he shrugged.

"Good enough for me," she said, quickly tying her hair in a ponytail before getting on in front of him. She slid back comfortably against him and basked in his scent that surrounded her as he leaned forward.

"Besides," he teasingly nibble on her earlobe as and she shivered. "It's every girl's fantasy to sit in front of their boyfriend on a broom."

"Should I sit side saddle?" she snarked and he laughed.

"No, but you might want to hold onto my wrist," he instructed.

She placed on hand on his wrist as he held the broom and the other on on his arm that was wrapped around her midsection.

"Let me know when you're ready," he said, nuzzling his nose against her sweet-smelling curls.

"I'm ready, but please don't go too high up yet," she whispered.

He nodded against her and allowed them to rise about ten feet into the air and she clutched to him tighter.

"Relax," he whispered. "You're safe."

"I-I know," she nodded.

He flew them a little higher and when she started to shake he nudged his chin against her and she tilted her face towards him to allow him to kiss her on the lips. As she was lost in their kiss, she didn't realize that they were no higher than the highest goal post.

"Open your eyes," he said against her lips.

Her eyes fluttered open and she startled, tipping the broom just slightly. "D-Draco!"

"It's okay," he reassured her, taking his hand off the handle and placing both of hers on it and adjusting them perfectly.

"What are you doing?" she asked stiffly as he wrapped both arms around her.

"Hanging on for dear life," he joked and grunted when she elbowed him. "You're going to fly."

"I'm not ready," she protested. "What if I hit the goal post again?"

"You won't. I'll tell you what to do if we come to close," he said and rest his chin on her shoulder.

She nodded and hesitated for a moment to regain her bearings before shifting the broom to the left and guiding them in a circle around the pitch. "This broom is so much easier than the other one!" she said.

"Of course it is," he smirked. "It's the best one on the market and nothing like those useless brooms the school has. Honestly, if you really wanted to attempt what you did last night you should have asked to use my Nimbus."

"And that would've laid in a broken pile on the ground," she muttered.

"No," he said, "I think what the problem was was that the school's brooms are so old that it probably wobbled and you couldn't control it very well. You remember what they were like in first year."

"I suppose," she said. "This is actually rather fun," she smiled and guided them around. She decided to take them up a bit higher so that they could see the roof of the castle.

He agreed and held her closer as she lowered them in the air. She couldn't help but shriek when they started to approach the goal post. "Draco! What do I do? We're going to hit it!" she panicked.

"No we're not," he said softly. "You're going to guide us to the left."

She guided them to the left, narrowly missing the post.

"Well, I think we need to work on that a bit," he chuckled. "Turn around and go back."

"What? Are you mad?" she hissed.

"You need to learn to be able to swerve quickly if you come up to objects," he said and took the handle to guide them back towards the post at a quick speed. He quickly placed his arms around her again and allowed to her take control of the broom. As they quickly approached, she swerved the broom about five feet back. "There, see! You did it," he grinned.

"I did!" she grinned back.

"Think you can try it by yourself?" he ask.

"Okay, but I'm still a bit shaky about landing."

"That's fine," he said. "Just gently guide us down, yes, that's it. You did perfectly," he complimented her as their feet touched the ground.

"Only because you were with me," she grumbled.

"Have some confidence in it," he teased. "You have it for everything else!"

She swatted at him playfully and he ducked out of the way, handing the Nimbus over to her.

"You must really trust me if you're letting me use this," she said, placing it on the ground and commanding 'up!' as it was the only way she knew how.

"Well I look at it this way," he grinned, "at least my girlfriend isn't poor like the Weasel and can afford to replace it if she breaks it."

"Shut up," she glared at him.

"I'm just teasing," he laughed. "You're not going to break it. Just remember what you just learned."

"All right," she said and mounted the broom. She took a deep break and went up into the air.

Draco watched from the ground, his wand at the ready just in case, as she flew around. He could see the smile on her face and knew she was conquering her fear. He proudly watched as she easily avoided the post a few times before she made a full circle around the pitch and easily landing beside him.

She gently dropped the broom to the ground and he caught her as she lunged at him. He twirled her around and gave her a kiss of congratulations.

"Thank you for helping me conquer my fear," she smiled at him.

And he smiled back.


End file.
